Rugby league columnist

Try of the year?: Brett Morris scores an amazing try against the Sharks on Saturday night. Photo: John Veague

1. Why rugby league's not in the major leagues

Picture this: South Sydney and the Sydney Roosters open the season ... in Los Angeles. Players spend the days leading up to the match doing American media. Not just that, the week before the game Souths play a trial match against the American Tomahawks and NRL clubs release the likes of Joseph Paulo and Clint Newton to play for the Americans. Club bosses and coaches reading this: would you be willing to allow such a scenario? No? Then you're not ready for the major leagues – and you're the reason our sport isn't, either.

2. An unusual touch from the Sharks

The curtain-raiser to the southern Sydney derby on Saturday night was a legends touch game featuring the likes of Stuart Raper, Jeff Hardy, Mathew Head and Scott Gourley. Mixed in were Cronulla and St George Illawarra members. The Dragons gave away the chance to play with the greats; struggling Cronulla sold the spots as part of a corporate ticket. Not that they were going to pay the NRL fine with the proceeds; the packages were $200 a pop and there were half a dozen of them.

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3. Try as they might, falcons and divots rule

Sure, the Brett Morris and Dean Whare tries were good to watch, but our favourite moments of the weekend featured Corey Parker and Leeson Ah Mau. Dragon Ah Mau's ''Falcon'', which saw the ball rebound off his head and travel 20 metres, set a new distance record for the art form. "They got six again!" coach Steve Price pointed out afterwards. And when Bronco Parker became frustrated that a line dropout was being held up because of a divot in the in-goal area, he walked 20 metres and replaced the turf himself. "I didn't think it was rocket science," he said after the match.

Over and above: Morris catches the bomb to begin his amazing try. Photo: John Veage

4. Journos on the Hunt for answers

Brisbane halfback Ben Hunt seems to have adopted the eminently sensible stance that if he wasn't going to let media criticism get him down, he's not going to let the current compliments have an impact either. After turning down most interview requests at the start of the season, he dead batted most questions when he emerged to face the fourth estate late on Friday night. "I don't read ... anything that's written," he said. "I look at it every now and then but it doesn't faze me. [Allan Langer] has been good. He says, keep a level head, don't look into that stuff too much, keep working hard, play your own game." Asked about the pressure of wearing Langer's old jumper, Hunt answered without referring to himself once. "Everyone's contributing," he said. "We can go a long way."

5. Concussion whispers growing louder

Taking flight: After taking control, Morris looks for the landing. Photo: John Veage

The NRL’s new concussion rules have not stopped clubs whispering about each other when it comes to the observance of them. A climate that last year led to team doctors compiling video dossiers of rival team incidents still exists. The problem is that no one has yet been sanctioned and there is a fear that no one will be because legally, this will later be interpreted as an admission of guilt. You can send as many ‘‘please explain’’ letters as you like but the rules only acquire teeth when someone is punished.

6. Practice makes Morris perfect

When Brett Morris was asked on Saturday night how on earth you practise diving head first into the ground and catching a ball on the way, he just shrugged and said ‘‘we practise it’’. But coach Steve Price, speaking on the ABC on Sunday said the Dragons had spent part of their summer in Wollongong PCYC, working with gym mats and spring-loaded floorboards, perfecting the execution of miracles. Why have we seen no footage of this? It’s not like it’s one of the dark arts, like wrestling.

27 comments so far

Would club bosses of MLB franchises like the Dodgers (or most importantly - the Yankees) allow their players to play a rinky-dink game 17 hours away on the eve of the season start! MLB teams play 162 regular games per season - compare that with 24 regular season games in a sport that is quite evidently far more physically taxing than a few innings of throwing a ball & at best 10 chances to face between 3 and 8 balls and run 30-120 yards! How Mr Mascord relates this ONE-OFF Australian promotion to rugby league is beyond me!! Two REAL in-season games out of 162 for global promotional purposes is do-able - losing players to injury within a 24 game season in the toughest team sport in the world is just ludicrous! Plus who would pay the cost? The Origin at Long Beach, LA in 1987 is primarily known for Sterling getting battered by a paper banner!

Commenter

Alan

Date and time

March 24, 2014, 1:26AM

The NFL has two teams travel to London in the middle of the season to play. They only have a 16 game season.

I don't think Mr. Mascord was suggesting the NRL is anywhere near a promotion on the grand scale MLB just managed, but until people have the vision and imagination to consider making it work in the distant future, the game will go nowhere. The point was that at the moment we are going precisely nowhere.

The NRL is simply too insular. The main difference with NRL and American leagues is we can't go alone. We don't have the economy and scale to dominate the world without a lot of co-operation like the NFL, MLB or NBA does.

And yet, we work against stakeholders and against meaningful growth in the following ways...

* State of Origin eligibility rules mean players are drained from developing countries to make allegiance to Aus on the small chance they might get to play for NSW or Qld. * The NRL changes rules without consulting interntationally with the IRL community. * Players are regularly banned from being available to the media by clubs.* A few weeks ago Ivan Cleary said there are too many internationals! And people agreed!* Over half the leagues plays in Greater Sydney, limiting commercial opportunities* At least half these Greater Sydney teams are reluctant to move from suburban 20,000 seat stadiums

Not all these are easy things to overcome, and some are very unpopular, but until thinking changes on all six points above the game just looks disappointingly retrograde.

Commenter

Rob

Date and time

March 24, 2014, 10:17AM

You overrate league.

Commenter

vitas

Date and time

March 24, 2014, 10:35AM

Um, okay. So exactly what is it about the grass or air in say, LA, that would somehow make a rugby league player more susceptible to a broken leg than they would at say, oh, any of the 20-odd venues we use regularly in Australia and New Zealand?

Are you going to kick up a stink about the Panthers taking a game to Bathurst this year because someone might get injured there?

Commenter

Phat

Date and time

March 24, 2014, 1:12PM

Baseball is a power sport, but there's obviously a lack of appreciation for athletics other than what you know. MLB clubs play 9 out of every 10 days and are on the road for half of these. Starting pitchers are on a rotation and generally start every 5 games, but the other 8 positional starters are required to practically play every game. Now baseball may not be a collision sport, but the major leagues are a 6-7 month grind both physically and mentally. Rarely do these guys get the chance to hit the cans during the season like our leaguies tend to do, and once a player picks up a niggle then the lack of recovery time and the requirement to play the next day has compounded many an injury.

Commenter

axe

Date and time

March 24, 2014, 2:16PM

1. Agree that club bosses need to look beyond Brisbane and Sydney... I would suggest however that Asia holds more potential than the US.

5. The solution to the concussion problem is clear to me... the NRL appoints it's own doctors to games, and they decide who goes off for concussion.

Commenter

Jimbob

Date and time

March 24, 2014, 7:04AM

Yeah they need independent oversight to apply concussion rules consistently. I'm not neccessarily questioning ethics of club doctors either, I think they will advise and trainers on-field, and coaches and boards off, will ignore the advice because current results matter most. If it's 50/50 that a star like Thurston or Inglis needs a week off, which way do you think the coin lands?

Commenter

Rob

Date and time

March 24, 2014, 10:21AM

Good point on the docs - In boxing the independent doctor can just go - "its over' and there can be no debate. Out of the NRLs extra cash contracting a team of doctors (say 10) so there is one at each game could work

Commenter

null

Location

Brisbane

Date and time

March 25, 2014, 8:11AM

Rugby League is still suffering from the fallout from the Super League war which resulted in the North Sydney Bears disappearing,Perth and Adelaide gone plus a second team in Brisbane that fell by the wayside.Also the amalgamation to form Wests Tigers and St George Illawarra diminished the credibility of the game and its supporter base. The population of Australia is too small to cater for all codes on a financial basis.The 350 million population is a huge market for a national game like baseball to thrive financially. The MLB organisation has the confidence in their product to expand their game. We have a great product in Rugby league but lack the will power to expand it both on a national or international basis. We have a small town mentality to our code.The World Cup showed us that expansion could happen if someone is able have a vision for our code.

Commenter

Bluesbreaker

Date and time

March 24, 2014, 8:11AM

The same would apply to AFL, cricket and rugby union. No one in the US (other than expats) is interested in those sports, and never will be.